sanctuary
by lilkawa
Summary: Michael needs Nikita's help
1. Chapter 1

Nikita doesn't belong to me.

**sanctuary**

Michael couldn't believe his ears. He'd been walking to his office when he'd heard voices; Percy and Amanda were talking. They were in Amanda's office but the door hadn't been shut properly.

"I think she should be cancelled." Amanda was saying.

"Give her some more time," Percy urged her.

"She seemed scared of doing things," Amanda replied. "And she's lying to me, holding something back."

"Well we can't do anything about her until the _September_ job," Percy reminded her, "she's our way in."

"Yes," Amanda agreed, "this job will be her test, if she does it well then she survives, for now. What about her boyfriend?"

"We'll take care of him after the job." Percy replied, "We don't want anything to jeopardize _September_."

Michael walked to his office; they wanted to kill Alex and Nathan. He knew Percy was only putting off the killing of Nathan because the _September_ job was too important; he'd probably had Roan on his tail already just waiting for the word to take him out.

Michael wasn't going to let that happen on his watch, innocent people weren't going to be killed while he stood by and did nothing.

He needed a plan; he needed to get Nathan out of town without alerting Division.

He needed Nikita.

He was still angry with her; she'd interfered with his plan to take Kasim out, and had him stopped on the tarmac. He'd been so close, closer than he'd ever been but Nikita had taken that from him. He was angry about that but he knew she was his only help in this situation; he just needed to find her.

A few weeks ago they'd found the Shell program, Nikita's way into Division's computers. Of course she hadn't used again but Birkhoff had left the link open. Michael reasoned that he could still use it to communicate with her. It was worth a try anyway.

0000

Michael sat at the computer, logged onto the program and typed, _Nikita, you there_, and waited.

0000

Nikita was standing by the window looking out when her computer pinged, she'd received a message. She walked towards the computer and read the message. Someone from Division was writing to her, Percy probably. She ignored it.

_Nikita, it's me, Michael._

Nikita looked at the screen. Was it really him? Could she take that chance? On the other hand what if she ignored him yet he really needed her help. She couldn't say no to Michael.

She sat down.

_Yes?_

Michael took a breath, she was there.

_Plain Vanilla_, he wrote.

Nikita smiled slowly, it was him.

_Wild Cherry_, Nikita wrote back, her smile widening.

They'd come up with those code words while on a mission. While Nikita was running out of the building following Michael's instructions through the coms, she'd come up with a silly game.

"What if we went rogue and were trying to communicate, what would you say?" she asked him.

"Why would we go rogue?" Michael asked her.

"Answer the question," Nikita urged him.

Michael had smiled, "why would we be trying to communicate?"

"Aggh," Nikita was frustrated, "okay say one of us was captured and we're trying to ascertain that it's really us, whatever."

"Okay," Michael replied, "don't shout at me."

Nikita had come out of the building and they got into the getaway car. After the debrief Michael was walking out of the building when he run into Nikita.

"Good job today," he told her, "Percy was very pleased."

"Yes," Nikita replied, "he told me."

Michael nodded and walked off. He turned and said, "Plain Vanilla."

"What?"

"I'd use Plain Vanilla, as my code word." Michael told her, wondering why he was doing this. She was a recruit, his recruit; personal relationships could get them killed.

"Wild Cherry," Nikita replied, smiling wickedly at him. "Now we have our secret code words."

Michael broke the eye contact and turned to leave. Nikita run after him, "that wasn't so hard, was it?"

He walked out of Division smiling.

_We need to meet_, Michael wrote. _I need your help._

_Your place, 8pm tonight,_ Nikita wrote back.

_See you then._

Michael logged off and sat at his desk, smiling.

0000


	2. Chapter 2

It was after eight-fifteen that Michael entered his apartment that evening.

Percy had had them run through the _September _job again, after the third run through, Michael had turned to Percy and asked him if they could stop.

"We still have three days," Michael said.

"And your head's still not in the game." Percy replied. "Are you having any problems?" Percy asked the question as if Michael shouldn't be having any problems at all.

"No." Michael replied, "Just tired of going through the same thing."

"This is a very dangerous and clever individual," Percy replied, "We can't leave anything to chance. Anything, you understand me?"

Michael nodded and left.

0000

Nikita was seated on his sofa facing the door.

"I was beginning to think you'd changed your mind." She told him.

"Percy had some things he wanted to go over."

Nikita nodded, she knew Percy well.

"I brought over some food," she said. At his look she added, "Not from that place you pretend to dislike so much."

During her time at Division, Nikita and Michael had had occasion to share meals after missions. Michael liked experimenting with different cuisines so when they could they went to different restaurants in whichever city they happened to be working.

One night they had literally stumbled upon a place that claimed to have authentic Indian food and they had tried it, the food had been so bad, Michael had gotten a stomach bug. However, that place was one restaurant where Nikita and Michael had gone that they had never been followed by Division agents, so they kept going back when they wanted to be alone.

Percy had told Michael that it wasn't 'healthy and frankly scary' the amount of time he spent with Nikita, after they had been caught on camera, twice, eating at restaurants, after missions.

"We're just eating," Michael told Percy, "nothing else."

"I know," Percy had replied, "but don't get too close. I don't want her compromising your judgment."

The Indian restaurant had become their place and after a while they had even found the right food to eat at that place.

"What did you bring?" Michael asked Nikita, now. "I'm starved."

Nikita lay out the food and they sat at the kitchen table and ate.

"So you said you needed my help?" Nikita asked Michael.

"There's this recruit, agent, that Percy thinks should be cancelled."

"And you disagree?"

Michael scowled at Nikita. "Percy and Amanda don't trust her, and they want Alex and her boyfriend killed after the mission this week."

Nikita was thankful that she was sitting because she nearly fell when she heard Alex's name mentioned. She'd told Alex to be careful, to ensure that no one knew about Nathan, but apparently Alex hadn't been careful enough.

"What do you want to do?" Nikita asked, although she just wanted to run to Alex's apartment and bundle her off to parts unknown.

"I want to arrange her death, so that it appears that she died during the mission."

Nikita nodded, "what about her boyfriend?"

"I thought you could help me with the specifics," Michael said, "which is why I asked for your help."

"Okay, tell me about the mission."

"_September_," Michael began, "we want to take down a drug dealer. He calls himself Mel, and makes and sells some deadly drugs to college students. Alex went in and attended one of his classes, she's never met him but they have communicated via email and phone. They have become so close, that he's agreed to a face to face. Alex is to meet him on Friday during a frat party, a masque party."

"So what's the plan?"

"She'll be wired; two agents will go in with her as her roomies while we will surround the perimeter, when she makes contact we go in."

"Why is Division doing this? Why not call the police?"

"Favour for one of Percy's friends. Apparently his son took the drugs and is currently in hospital, his friend died. Percy's friend is willing to pay a lot for the capture of Mel and also to ensure that his drug thing never gets on his son's records."

"Okay, so Alex goes in, finds Mel; you grab him and take him out." Nikita said.

"Actually our plan is bigger than that," Michael told her, "but you don't need to know that."

""So you inject Alex with something to make it seem like she's dead and get her out. Why do you need me?"

"I don't want her body brought back to Division," Michael pointed out, "they'll check and they could even decide to incinerate it before I get it out."

"So, I come to the party, cause some chaos, Alex dies, people disappear. You realize that Percy will want to see the body, right?"

Michael nodded.

"I'll come up with a plan," Nikita told him, "we still have time."

Michael cleared the table and poured them some more drinks.

"Thanks for coming," Michael told her.

"I told you," Nikita said, "I'll always have your back. Although I was surprised, but glad, to hear from you."

"You're the only one I could trust with this."

"Really? I thought you didn't trust me," Nikita told him, "especially after the last time we met."

"You interfered with my plans," Michael told her, "you let Kasim get away." He turned and looked straight at her, "Why did you Nikita, I had him. I was closer than I had ever been."

"I'm sorry," Nikita told him, "I didn't know that. I didn't want to take the chance; I thought they would kill you."

"You wanted to save me?" Michael was incredulous.

"Michael I would never do anything to put you in danger."

Michael knew that, somewhere deep inside he knew that and he would do the same for Nikita, he couldn't imagine his life without her in it. He already knew how empty it had been when she'd left it but their lives were too complicated, they had so much between them, it could never work.

"I guess I'll turn in," he told her, "It's been a long day."

"Good night Michael," Nikita told him, "I'll be in touch tomorrow."

Michael watched her walk out of his apartment calling himself every kind of coward. Many times he'd wanted to reach out and touch her hand but he restrained himself, he didn't deserve someone like her, she was too good for him. She deserved so much more than he could give – he really had nothing to give anyone.

He would concentrate on saving the recruits and agents in Division, which was all he was good for.

0000

**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


	3. Chapter 3

The _September_ job started off without a hitch. Alex, Jaden and Sara entered the dorm; Alex was dressed as Xena, Jaden as Cleopatra and Sara as Maid Marian, they had half masks over their faces. Michael and a team were outside waiting for Alex's signal.

Alex stood at the bar and looked at her watch, which was the signal Mel had agreed upon.

"Hey there," a guy bumped into Alex. She moved a step backwards. "You must be Alex," the voice continued, "glad you could make it."

He was dressed as Zorro. She smiled at him, "You must be Mel."

"Are we going to do this?" she asked him.

"Of course," he replied, "come with me." He took her hand. Alex touched her sword and Jaden and Sara nodded and followed her discreetly. Outside the house, Mel pulled Alex, "hurry," told her and they began to run.

000

Nikita was outside watching the house; she was dressed as a pirate, Alex and Mel ran past her. She had spoken to Alex just hours before the mission and it had been hard for her not to convince her friend to blow off the mission. She knew her plan would work but she hadn't wanted to put her friend in any danger at all.

Her phone vibrated, _Good luck_, it was from Michael, _I'm counting on you._

_Will see you later_, she wrote back, _trust me._

Mel led Alex to a truck; a guy opened it and pulled Alex inside. There were four guys inside.

"Who do you work for?" one of them asked her.

"What do you mean?" Alex replied, looking scared. "I'm just a student."

"Do you think we're stupid?" they asked her. One of the guys slapped her across the face, Alex fell to the ground.

"Let's go," one of the men said, and he started the car.

Nikita pulled out a device and pressed a button, the truck fell to one side.

000

"We have a problem," Pete told Michael.

They watched in disbelief as the truck fell to the side of the road. "What's going on?" Michael asked. "How did that happen?"

Pete and Andy run to the truck, Michael and another agent were giving them back-up. When Pete and Andy got within two feet of the truck it blew up. The four agents watched in shock as the truck raged with fire.

"We need a cleaner," Michael said, "the truck's been blown up, and I think Alex is dead."

'Don't panic," Percy said, "let us check it out first. She may not have been in the truck at all."

000

Three hours later Percy got the results back from the coroner. Alex and five males bodies including the man she had met at the party were dead.

"That's one less thing to take care of," Amanda said when Percy told her.

"Very convenient." Percy replied.

"You suspect foul play?" Amanda asked him.

"Nope." Percy had thought about it for while but he couldn't see how anyone could have interfered with the truck. Besides that, the dentals of the dead girl found in the truck had matched Alex's.

"Like as I said," Amanda said, "that's done."

"What about the boyfriend?" Percy asked as Amanda left the room, "killing him now seems like overkill, wouldn't you say?"

Amanda nodded.

000

"You didn't fail Michael," Percy told him. "How were you to know they'd rigged the truck with explosives?"

Michael, Jaden and Sara were in Percy's office. Sara had been hysterical, screaming, when the truck blew up and even Jaden was a little sad although she'd never liked Alex.

"We lost an agent," Michael told Percy, "and that means failure in my book."

"We lost an agent," Percy replied, "and a good one at that, but at least Mel is also out of the picture." He stood up, signaling the end of the debriefing, "Good work, have a goodnight."

000

Michael entered his apartment and sat down on his sofa. He wondered where Nikita and Alex were, he hoped Nikita had somehow taken Alex and Nathan of out of the country already. He had expected to find Nikita waiting for him here; he'd been looking forward to seeing her. He wondered where she was.

000


	4. Chapter 4

One hour later, Michael still hadn't heard from Nikita. He'd called her at least dozen times and left as many messages; for one insane moment he'd thought of going back to Division to try to contact her using the shell program but luckily that had lasted for just a moment. Now he was back to pacing and looking out of the window.

Where was she?

A few hours ago

"Owen hurry up," Nikita told him; they were running towards the truck that Nikita had caused to overturn.

"Honestly, Nikita," Owen complained, "when you asked for help, I didn't think it would involve carrying around dead bodies." Owen was carrying a cadaver with him.

"Sorry," Nikita told him unsympathetically.

They got to the truck, Nikita pulled Alex out and Owen put the other body in the truck. "If you don't mind my asking," Owen said, "who is that anyway?" he was pointing at the body he'd been carrying.

"Homeless girl, died of a drug overdose," Nikita explained, "she'd been lying in the morgue unclaimed for almost two months." Nikita had dressed her in a Xena outfit and swapped her dentals for Alex's in Division.

When they were a safe distance from the truck, Nikita blew it up; the bodies would be unrecognizable, they'd need dental records to tell who exactly had been in the truck. The only sure thing would be that there had been one female and five males in the car.

Owen was taking Alex and Nathan to Canada from where they would continue to their final destination. They hadn't decided yet, Alex was still shocked to learn that Percy and Amanda had wanted to cancel her and Nathan, but wherever it was Owen was going to help them set up and get word back to Nikita.

That had been over four hours ago.

Nikita knew that Michael was worried but she decided that she would give him the news in person; she really wanted to see him.

Now

Michael stopped pacing and grabbed his jacket; he would take a walk to help him calm down. Who knew maybe by the time he came back Nikita would be here waiting for him.

He opened the door. Nikita had just been reaching for the door knob. They stood there and looked at each other. Michael nearly fell down; he was so relieved to see her.

"Going somewhere?" Nikita asked him. He shook his head and let her into the apartment.

"You don't seem happy to see me," Nikita said.

"You're late."

"Thanks for your help Nikita," she told him sarcastically.

"Where have you been? I was worried."

"I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself."

"I know, but I was still worried." Michael said. "You couldn't have called me, let me know that everything was fine?"

Nikita looked at him, he was really worried.

"I wanted to," she said, "but I wanted to do it in person."

"So are they out of the country?" Michael asked, he had taken off his jacket and was making tea for himself. Nikita's shake was in the fridge, he handed it to her.

"Yes," Nikita replied, "an associate of mine is looking after them."

"Good."

"Thank you," Nikita told him. She didn't tell him what she was really thanking him for, saving Alex's life. She was going to tell him, but not yet.

Michael nodded wondering why Nikita was really thanking him; he sensed that there was something she was keeping from him. He started to ask but changed his mind, she would tell him if and when she was ready, until then he could wait.

"So how did Percy take it?"

"He congratulated me on a job well done."

"I expected no less from him," Nikita said. "Remind me again why you work for him."

"We do good Nikita, you know that."

"But you also do some very bad things, Michael."

Michael shrugged, thinking not again. They had this argument a lot, Nikita wanted him to leave Division and join her in her fight to bring it down. Michael knew the Division had a dark side to it, but most of their work had helped to keep people and the country safe, he couldn't turn his back on that. He stayed to ensure that Percy didn't bring the country to its knees with his famous black boxes. But mostly he stayed to protect the young people - recruits that Percy brought in.

"Can we please not talk about work?" Michael asked her.

"Yes," Nikita agreed, "Thing is, I love you Michael but I can't stand your job."

Michael looked at Nikita in shock. He couldn't believe his ears, had she just said that she loved him? He had hoped that Nikita felt something other than friendship for him; he had certainly been attracted to her since they had met but she had been a recruit that hadn't stopped him from falling in love with her but there were rules. Then she'd become agent and when he thought that they may actually get a chance to see if a relationship could work, Nikita had gotten engaged.

Nikita had been in the act of raising her glass to her mouth when she realized what she'd said. From the look on Michael's face it was clear that he had heard her words. She couldn't believe she had finally admitted how she felt about him.

Nikita couldn't exactly pinpoint when her feelings for Michael had changed. She had always been aware of him, of his voice and his intense gaze and she had liked it when he was in charge of a specific aspect of the training. He made it so much fun and he was kind, he cared about the recruits. Nikita liked to think that he cared a lot more about her than the others.

Then Percy had sent them on a mission to Oslo. They were supposed to be graduate students doing research, at least that's what they had been told.

When they got to Oslo they had discovered that they were supposed to be a married couple, marine biologists doing research on the whales. They had had to share a cabin in a submarine. Sharing hadn't been easy but Michael had behaved like a perfect gentleman and not once had he taken advantage of her, and apart from the public displays of affection that were expected of them - and these had been a lot less than Nikita would have wanted - he didn't touch her.

They had spent three days in the sub and during that time they had grown very close, they had talked about their pasts – Kasim and Nikita's father, their favourite plays, books, films, music and what they would do if they were free agents.

Michael had just been about to break the rules he'd made for himself, when the mission ended, he really liked Nikita but she was still young, she needed to live her life. They agreed to talk about the tension that was mounting between them when they returned stateside.

However fate, or maybe Percy, seemed to have other plans; when that mission had ended, he sent Nikita on another assignment, where she'd met Daniel, after a while they were engaged.

"Finally."

Nikita had expected a reaction from Michael but _finally_ hadn't made the list. She looked at him inquiringly.

"You remember the day you told me you were engaged?" Michael asked her.

0000

Nikita remembered that day, she'd been so happy. She had wanted to share the news with her friends, well her friend Michael. He'd been calling her for two days but she hadn't yet found the time to return his calls, so she'd decided to call him up, meet him and tell him in person.

"Nikita, there's something I need to talk to you about." He'd told her.

"Me too," Nikita said. She'd looked so excited, he'd let her tell him her news first. When he'd heard that she had met someone, was thinking of leaving Division and doing the whole picket and kids' thing, he'd felt his heart break. He was too late.

"Congratulations," he told her.

"What did you want to tell me?" she asked.

"Nothing," Michael replied, "not important."

He'd wanted to tell her that he loved her and that he didn't think Percy would welcome the news of her engagement but Nikita was on cloud nine nothing could touch her.

0000

Nikita looked at him, now. "You wanted to tell me something. I didn't let you."

He nodded.

Michael smiled at Nikita, giving her a long, deep meaningful look.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she asked him.

"It depends. What do you think I'm saying?"

They looked at each other, smiling into each other's eyes and then Nikita jumped into his arms and they held each other.

"At last."

00end00

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

OOC - ish, mushy-ish but, hope you liked it.


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